Tag: tube frame

I’ve said this before, but it’s the humble yet amazing DIY garage builds that truly encompass the mantra of this website, and it’s a sentiment that Greg, the owner of this Swift, agrees with. His words: “1987 Pontiac Firefly (That’s a Canadian-Market Suzuki Swift or Chevy Sprint), with a full tube-frame, full cage, small-block Chevy, converted to front-engine-rear-wheel-drive. It all fits under the body work, and looks a sleeper.” The best part? The total cost came in at $3200CDN (roughly $2500US), an exercise in true DIY (see: transmission tunnel sheetmetal pillaged from dead freezer).

The remnants of a Datsun240Z, a late-model engine swap, a whole lot of tubing, and a slathering of carbon fibre thrown in for good measure. This is a complete ground-up build if I’ve ever seen one. The thread actually started in 2009, so there are a few dead links, but all the oily bits are still there for us to enjoy.

You can check out the owner’s website here: Z-car. Thanks to Geoff for submitting (waaay back in 2014!).

Engineered To Slide; there’s a good chance you already follow Nigel’s blog and know all about his impressive two and four wheeled projects, both past and present. When I first started this blog, I launched it with a handful of builds already published from the get-go, and one of those was the ETS S13 Silvia, knowing that I just had to include something from his stable when I launched Build Threads. A couple of years later I was super excited to see his new project taking shape – a scratch-built Toyota Hilux with Nissan S15 running gear – and just had to make a post about it when it wasn’t yet much more than a mockup. After many updates and blog posts over the span of a few years, I had absorbed every image and every word Nigel had posted about his one-off creation. Now here we are, years later, and it’s still just as impressive as it was when it was first completed. Nigel has just posted a retrospective post on the journey with 100 images of his choice, a perfect opportunity to re-live the build…

It’s like someone went and made a channel specifically for us! So far the series has videos detailing how to make a time attack roll cage and a tube frame front end, amongst other various fabrication topics. The complete Part 1 instalment of the tube frame front end video looks to be a paid video, but at over 2 hours long and less than a couple of bucks it sure does appear to be great value for money.

I feel as though I’ve been moving away from the original intentions of this website, and that is linking you to interesting builds from around the world. What I mean by that is, I think the site-hosted builds like the Ferrari F40, Honda City Turbo II, EG Civic/S15 Silvia, and my own garage build have distracted me from posting those unique threads from various forums. Not that those builds aren’t interesting – and they’re a hell of a lot more work for me to set up – it’s just that this site was built on finding and sharing builds from external forums. So here we go, back into the swing of things with a completely custom built car from Sweden. The fiberglass body is influenced by 1970’s race cars like the GT40 and Lola, with a 3.2L Alfa RomeoV6 for motivation. Thanks to Håkan for submitting, this is his own build.

So what do you think, do you prefer being linked to builds on forums? Or do you enjoy reading builds that are completely hosted on this site? I’d love to hear your thoughts…

Those crazy Swedes! I don’t think I’ve ever featured a build from the Nordic region that hasn’t been absolutely bonkers. This time it’s a Volvo 142 that has received a hand built custom chassis beneath a gutted floor pan, with a minor engine upgrade to go with it. Wait, did I say ‘minor’? I meant to say ‘completely custom designed and machined quad-rotor 26B’. The pictures speak for themselves.

Thanks to Tony from Mooseville Performance (the owner/builder) and also reader Matthias for submitting on separate occasions.

Click here for more Scandinavian builds (seriously, they’re all amazing). Click here for more Volvo builds.

Remember this Lancia Delta I featured back in November 2009? No? Well, that’s okay, because I didn’t either! The build was submitted to me very recently, so after assessing it I started the usual process of putting the post together. It actually took me about 10 or so pages before the build started to look familiar. So why am I featuring it again? Because the car gets a full overhaul and is now a completely different beast compared to a few years ago. You’ll probably see pictures of it on the track on Speedhunters within their 2013 Gatebil coverage, so it seems as good a time as ever to share the build with you.

Thanks to Bastien for submitting via the Facebook page. Click here for more Scandinavian builds.

A few months ago I took a step forward in this little hobby of ours and bought myself a Mig welder. Since then I’ve made a few custom parts and brackets, added some new metal to my radiator support panel, and even helped a mate plug up some holes in his engine bay. I was starting to feel pretty proud of my accomplishments; then I received an email from Cameron about his Peugeot 205 build and I came crashing back down to reality. You see, Cameron studied Motorsport Engineering and now works for Ford in the UK as a suspension systems engineer, so he knows a thing or two about how cars work, especially his Peugeot 205. The plan for this little hatch is a space-frame chassis with double wishbone and push-rod suspension, front engine (ish), rear wheel drive, ~350bhp and carbon panels for a target weight of 600kg including the driver. Be sure to keep an eye out for an update in the future when the car is closer to completion.

Porsche’s seem to be blowing up the internet lately. Between RWB, Singer, and most recently Magnus Walker, there’s been a constant stream Porkas on every auto blog out there for the past few years now. But hey, this is Build Threads, so you know if you see a Porsche here there’s going to be something different about it. So how about a full tube framed 996 with a 5-cyl ABY Audi powerplant?